THE WATERS off Ireland’s coasts have claimed their fifth victim in a week, after the body of a man in his 60s was recovered from waters off Co Cork yesterday.

The man, a retired schoolteacher, was recovered near Pulleen Pier in Castletownbere at about 2:30pm yesterday afternoon.

The Irish Examiner names the deceased as Pearse Lyne, aged 64, who had been the principal in the boy’s national school in Castletownbere. He was married with a son and three daughters.

It is thought he had gone out to sea about five hours earlier and had been laying lobster pots before his boat was spotted overturned.

Lifeboats and coastguard helicopters were dispatched and found the man’s body about 150m from the pier.

The tragedy came less than four days after another man in his 60s died when the dinghy in which he and his 18-year-old son were travelling capsized close by. The man drowned while his son clung to the upturned craft and then swam to safety.

On Tuesday, the bodies of two missing fishermen were discovered a day after their boat had failed to return to port after a day out lobster fishing.

The body of another fisherman was recovered from the sea near Clare Island, off Mayo, on Wednesday evening.

Agriculture and marine minister Simon Coveney said this had been “a particularly tragic week at sea for Co Clare and for Co Cork.

“My heart goes out to all of the families who are struggling to deal with the loss of their loved ones,” the minister said.

“This has been a shocking and tragic week in a year that has seen so much loss and sadness at sea.”